One Better Day
by xRynnX
Summary: Dealing with races and a blooming romance, Fran feels like he's been given more than he can handle. Third part to 'A Split Second'.
1. Chapter 1

Fran pressed his forehead against the window, hoping to shoot down the headache that was starting to form.

"You okay, kiddo?" asked a strawberry blonde from the drivers seat.

"Peachy," Fran grumbled and pressed his head further into the window.

Fran groaned when he felt himself being pulled away from the window by his hood.

"Alright, what's got your panties in a bunch?"

Fran sighed and leaned back in his seat, arms crossed against his chest.

"Out of all the people Spanner knows, why'd he have to send me to Italy with _you_."

Dino Cavallone chuckled, "'Cause he trusts me?"

"Dude, Shoichi doesn't even trust you and you two have been together for how long now?" Fran questioned, looking over at Dino out of the corner of his eyes.

"Four years," Dino said dreamily. "When we were in our last year of high school, I gave him my second button and he accepted my confession."

"Second button?" Fran asked, turning in his seat to face Dino.

"In Japan, a male student gives the second button from the top of their tops to the person they're in love with. It's the button closest to the heart," Dino explained, a large smile on his face as he thought about his teenage years.

"Fascinating," Fran sighed and turned back around again, pulling his legs up on the seat and wrapping an arm around his knees.

"Hey!" Dino frowned as he swatted at the air in a failed attempt to get Fran to put his legs down. "Feet off, I just bought this."

Fran ignored him in favor of curling up in the leather seat of the Cadillac Escalade.

Dino sighed as he flicked his turn signal, "Why are you so against me taking you to Italy?"

"I'm not. I'm just…a bit grumpy. A lot has happened in the past month and I haven't been taking it well," Fran answered.

"Well, you'll be resting as much as you possibly can while we're here," Dino said, a large grin on his face, "I'll make sure of it."

"I wanna eat Gelato," Fran said, green eyes flicking over to Dino.

"I promise to take you out to eat one of these days, today we'll settle in, and you'll catch up with Alden and Luche," Dino said, reaching over and patting Fran's knee in a comforting gesture.

Fran nodded and perked up at the sight of the Villa that Dino was currently driving up to.

"What's up with people and their large, fancy homes," Fran grumbled as he slid out of the parked car, thought on Mukuro's summer home and Verde and Bel's apartment building.

Dino whistled as he looked up at the white painted Villa, "Neat."

Fran rolled his eyes and moved to the back to grab his suitcase, ignoring Dino's excited squeal of 'they have a swimming pool, Fran!'

"Need help?"

Fran, thankfully, froze in place instead of jumping out of his skin as he normally would have done if someone sneaked up on him like that. Except that they hadn't snuck up on him as much as they had just stepped into his line of view.

Fran nodded and handed his bag to Alden who took it with a small smile to his adoptive son before heading into the house and leaving Fran to grab his duffle bag that held the other half of his clothes. As he passed Dino, Fran flicked the blonde's ear to grab his attention.

"Stop fangirling over a home and get your suitcase," Fran said before stepping into the Villa and leaving Dino behind.

"Fran!"

Fran suddenly felt himself being pulled into a tight hug by Luche. The scent of freshly baked cookies and flowers surrounded the woman and Fran hugged her back, holding her nearly as tightly as she held him.

"I'm so glad you decided to come spend the summer with us," Luche murmured as she ran her fingers through Fran's hair.

"Well, I didn't have much of a choice since papa Alden said he wanted me here for whatever reason," Fran said back, warmth flooding him at Luche's motherly touch.

"Can't a man see his young son?" Alden chuckled as he pulled Fran into a one armed hug before pulling away to get a good look at Fran. "You've grown so much since I last saw you."

"That's what us teenagers do, grow," Fran said with a shrug.

"You must be tired," Luche said as she watched Dino stumble into the house, two suitcases in hand, and two others under his arms. "Um, are all of those yours?"

Dino gave a small embarrassed smile as he nodded his head and fell over onto the marble floor of the foyer with a screech.

"Oh my," Luche gasped as she hurried over to the fallen man. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, this happens a lot," Dino replied brightly as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head.

"Can you believe he's twenty-two?" Fran asked Alden, his green eyes looking up at the elder.

Alden chuckled and ruffled Fran's hair before going to help Dino with his luggage.


	2. Chapter 2

_Spinning. No control. Can't stop. Crashing. Dark. Too dark._

Fran shot up with a gasp, his forehead sweaty and sheets thrown on the floor. He pressed his palm into his forehead to ward off his headache. He reached over to grab his phone and pressed a button to light it up.

7:45am, Fran sighed and stood up to stretch. He could already smell the scent of Luche's cooking and his stomach was grumbling with the need to eat Luche's cooking. He quickly went to the bathroom to do his morning routine and threw a t-shirt on over his sleeveless shirt before rushing downstairs and into the kitchen.

Dino was already seated at the table, looking eager to be fed when Fran entered the kitchen. Fran walked over to Luche and hugged her tightly from behind, muttering a quick 'good morning' before seating himself at the table.

"Did you sleep well, Fran?" Luche asked as she placed two plates full with eggs and toast on the table.

"Yes," Fran answered as he fought Dino's fork off with his own, the two of them trying to get as much food as possible onto their plates.

A few seconds afterwards, Alden walked in and headed straight for Luche. He hugged his wife tightly and placed a large kiss on her cheek before plopping down between Fran and Dino at the table. Luche giggled softly at her husband before placing another plate full of sausages on the table.

"Good morning, boys," Alden said brightly, grinning at Fran and Dino.

"Good morning," Dino and Fran replied simultaneously with different levels of enthusiasm.

"How did you sleep?" Alden asked. The question was for both Dino and Fran but Fran felt Alden's blue eyes on him.

"I slept great!" Dino replied. "The beds here are really soft!"

Alden chuckled as he pulled his hair into a ponytail, "I'm glad. How about you, Fran?"

Fran paused for a bit, his thoughts flashing back to the nightmare he had that morning. "I slept fine."

"Fantastic," Alden replied, stabbing a sausage with his fork and plopping it on his plate.

"Alden will be taking you out to explore Rome today, Fran," Luche said as she took her seat beside Alden, reaching over and patting her husband's hand.

"Ah, yes, I'll be showing you a few things," Alden said, smiling at Fran.

Fran raised an eyebrow but didn't question Alden. Instead, he covered his toast in maple syrup and took a bite.

"Should you really be eating all that?" Dino asked, gesturing to the syrup covered toast with his fork.

"It's fine," Fran answered, "you can worry if I have more than two."

"Okay then," Dino said as he watched Fran carefully.

"You still get sugar high?" Alden asked, a hint of mirth in his voice.

"Unfortunately, yes," Fran answered as he shoved a sausage into his mouth.

"Same old Fran, huh?" Luche chuckled to herself as she watched her youngest steal food from Dino.

~0~0~0~0~

"What is this place?" Fran asked Alden as the two walked towards a store at the shopping center.

"Armani," Alden answered as he grabbed Fran by the sleeve before he could run away.

"I'm not going in there," Fran said stiffly as he planted his feet firmly on the ground.

"Yes, you are," Alden said as he wrapped his hand around Fran's wrist and pulled him into the store.

Instantly, there was someone there to greet them in rapid Italian that left Fran's brain scrambling for a translation until he stopped to realize that he never really learned Italian.

Fran watched quietly as Alden spoke in Italian to the nicely dressed worked. He attempted to use his knowledge of French to understand what was going on. Unfortunately for him, Italian and French are two different languages.

"Fran," Alden said, switching back to English, "this man is Turmeric; he'll be helping you pick out an outfit."

"But-," Fran protested before Alden shushed him.

"Please, Fran" Alden pleaded, giving Fran a soft smile.

Fran huffed and crossed his arms, "Fine, but only one outfit."

Alden nodded and nudged Fran towards Turmeric who greeted him with a nod and gestured for the teen to follow him.

For the next hour, Fran had several shirts held up to him along with pants, jackets, and coats. When Turmeric finally found an outfit that suited Fran, the gruff looking man smiled and nodded before handing the outfit to Fran leading him towards the changing rooms. Fran was shoved into one of the rooms along with the clothes and he grudgingly undressed before putting the clothes on.

When Fran walked out, Alden stood there before the room. The teen watched a large smile spread across the elders face before he let out a low whistle.

"Very impressive," Alden said as he gave Fran a once over.

Fran sighed as he looked over himself. The dark blue, cotton button up fit him nicely along with the black classic pants and the one button black coat.

Alden chuckled as he looked down at Fran's feet, "Would you like a pair of shoes as well?"

Fran looked down to his black converse and then back at Alden, shaking his head.

"Very well then," Alden said looking over at Turmeric, "we'll take it."

Turmeric nodded and went off to the register while Fran stepped back into the dressing room to get out of the fancy clothes. Just wearing them made him feel like a million bucks and it also made him feel kind of sick.

Once Fran finished changing, he stepped back out of the room and handed the clothes to Alden who took them up to the counter. Fran followed after him like a little duckling and watched as Alden paid for the clothing and cufflinks. The large number on the register nearly made Fran pass out.

As Alden and Fran left the shop, Fran pulled at Alden's sleeve, stopping the elder from heading to the car.

"Um, thank you," Fran said, shuffling his feet awkwardly as he looked at the ground.

"No problem, I just wanted to buy you something nice," Alden said as he continued his way to the car. "Your father once told me that every man should own at least one suit. He wore them a lot, your father."

Fran blinked at the sudden conversation of his father and looked down at the bag in his hands. From what he remembered, his father did always wear suit. The only times Fran saw his father without a suit was when they were going to bed and in the mornings when Hazama would wake up.

"He did wear them a lot," Fran said softly as he slid into the car, carefully placing the bag in the back seat. He pulled his seat belt on, pulling the strap across his chest and making sure the strap around his waist was tight enough to hold him.

"Yes, he did," Alden said as he began to drive, he looked over at Fran with a soft smile. "Would you like to go out to eat?"

Despite having eaten breakfast only a few hours ago, Fran nodded rapidly.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, where's Fran?"

Spanner looks up at Bel, briefly swirling his lollipop in his mouth before answering, "In Italy."

Bel eye's widen behind his bangs, his teeth clenching, "_Italy_? He's in Italy! Why was I not informed of this?"

"I thought he would tell you seeing as how you two are all buddy-buddy now," Spanner shrugged and returned to the car he was working on.

"How long is he gonna be there?" Bel sighed and slumped down against a wall.

"A month."

"A month!" Bel spluttered, an expression of shock and disbelief on his face.

Spanner nodded, "Yep, dad called a few days ago saying he wanted Fran to spend the rest of summer break with him in Italy."

"This sucks…" Bel groaned and winced when he hit his head on the wall.

Spanner simply chuckled, "You're stupid."

~0~0~0~0~

He was just finishing his paper for his English course when there was a knock at his door.

Bel stood from his couch, shutting his book and laptop, and made his way to the door. He tripped over a few things on the way but he made it without injury. Opening the door, he saw Mammon standing outside, hood over his head as it usually was.

"Hey," Bel said brightly, a smile on his lips. "Wanna come in?"

Mammon simply nodded and pushed passed him, heading straight towards the couch and plopping down on it.

Bel raised an eyebrow as he closed the door. His boyfriend looked extremely tense and the way he sat with his head lowered gave him an uneasy feeling.

"So, wha-"

"Belphegor, we need to talk."

~0~0~0~0~

Strangely enough, it didn't hurt as bad as he thought it would.

Sure, he still had this painful ache in his chest, but it wasn't as bad as movies made it seem.

The blonde lay in his bed, face buried deeply into the pillow that had the lingering scent of the frog who had slept over a few days ago.

He pulled his phone out and sent a message.

**To: Froggy**

**Call me. You have 1440 minutes. Fail and face erasure.**


	4. Chapter 4

"So what did you mean by _'fail and face erasure'_? Were you gonna delete me from your phone or something?"

A weak chuckle from the other end floated into the teen's ear.

"_**No….I just… it's from a videogame. Fran…Mammon…we…well, you already know."**_

Fran sighed and slumped in his seat on the garden bench.

"Sorry. For not telling you."

"_**Don't apologize. I wouldn't have wanted to hear it from you anyway."**_

"Still…I'm sorry that this happened to you."

"Stop apologizing. How's Italy?"

Fran raised an eyebrow at the sudden change of conversation, shaking his head he took a deep breath.

"So far, Papa Alden bought me a suit, Dino took me out to dinner, and I baked a pie with Mama Luche. It's great…"

"_**When were you planning on telling me you were leaving?"**_

Fran frowned this time. With the sudden request from Alden for him to go to Italy, he hadn't had much time to think about anything.

"I was hoping you wouldn't notice."

Fran could almost see the blonde rolling his eyes.

"_**Who wouldn't notice you were gone? Seriously, you're like a constant presence at the tracks. We were all bound to notice you were gone at some point."**_

"I wish you were here."

A pause.

"_**What?"**_

"I...I don't know."

Another.

"_**I wish I was there too."**_

Fran bit his lip to stop the small quirk of his lips.

"I gotta go, Alden's calling me."

"_**Alright, keep in touch, brat."**_

"You got it, douche."

Fran hung up first before sliding off the bench and jogging to where Alden was waving him over.

"I'm taking you somewhere," Alden said as he began to walk towards his car, a sign that Fran should follow.

"Okay…where?" Fran asked, getting into the car and properly putting his seatbelt on.

Alden simply smiled at him before starting the car.

"You'll see when we get there."

~0~0~0~0~

Fran gulped.

Insane. That was the only word he could use to describe the scene he was currently looking at.

"It's amazing isn't it?" Alden asked, a small smile on his face as he looked at Fran.

"It's huge…I've never seen anything like this before," Fran murmured, his eyes still fixed on the sight in front of him.

"It's the largest track on Earth," Alden said proudly. "It was built before your father and I were even born. No one really knows who had it built though."

"Largest…on Earth…" Fran couldn't believe what he was hearing. His thoughts were jumbled with different feelings and it was making him a bit dizzy. "I think I need to sit down."

Alden chuckled and led Fran to the seating area where Fran plopped down heavily onto one of the many seats.

"Every two years, a huge race is held here," Alden began. "Racers from all over the world send in their application videos just to be able to race on these tracks right here. When it comes to groups, a representative is chosen to apply. Only twenty racers are ever chosen though out of millions, Fran."

Fran could feel his eyes going wide. Only twenty? Out of the millions of applicants, only twenty were chosen?

"Those twenty are split into to four six racer groups. Groups A, B, C, and D. The racers race within their groups first to see who will represent the group and then, there's a race between the four groups to chose the two finalist, finally, those two race and the one who crosses the line after ten laps is the winner," Alden explained, his eyes on Fran to watch his reactions.

The teen leaned back in his seat and slumped down.

"Insane."


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N) GUYS. HEY GUYS. I'M NOT DEAD =D ! Ehem. There's an explanation for my absence. I am senior in high school therefore I have many things to do if I wish to graduate. Those many things took up much of my time leaving me unable to write. But now, I'm done and I can return to you guys. That is, if you all still want me. I hope these two chapters can make it up to you all.**

* * *

><p>Bel huffed as he pulled his seatbelt on and slumped in his seat. He glared over at the blonde male beside him.<p>

"Calm down, kid," Spanner said as he turned off his electronics. "It's not my fault you forgot."

Bel pouted and turned his gaze to the seat before him, "There was too much going on for me to remember."

"Voooi! How do you forget something like this you damn brat!" Squalo scowled from the window seat.

Spanner nodded, "How do you forget something as important as this?"

Bel opened his mouth to answer only to close it again. There really wasn't much of an excuse for forgetting something so important.

The blonde simply stayed quiet and put his headphones in as the plane took off.

~0~0~0~0~

"Hey! Catch!"

Fran fell back into the grass as a football throttled into him. He groaned and opened his eyes only to be blinded by the bright Italy sun.

"Aw, man I'm sorry!" Dino cried as he tripped over thin air to reach Fran.

Fran sat up, eyes still closed and rubbed his chest, "It's alright, but why'd you just try murdering me with a football?"

Dino, who decided walking may result in him busting his face on the ground, wiggled his way to where Fran was sitting.

"I wasn't trying to hurt you," Dino whined. "I only wanted to play catch."

Fran ruffled Dino's hair, "Roll over, boy."

Dino glared and swatted the teen's hand away.

"I'm not a dog!" Dino rolled away from Fran with a pout on his face.

Fran bit back a smile, "You rolled anyway."

Dino opened his mouth to reply and ended up shaking his head when he came up with nothing.

"You…you're mean," Dino whined and sat beside Fran.

"Yeah, I know," Fran sighed as he lay back in the grass.

Dino looked up to sky, narrowing his eyes a little as the beams of sun attacked him.

"Alden wants you to wear that suit he bought you tonight," Dino said without looking over to Fran.

Fran looked over to the blonde, "What for?"

"He's a sponsor of that great race thing and he's allowed to bring his friends and family so we're all going to an event that's being held tonight for all the racers" Dino said answered, his fingers running through the grass.

Fran nodded before biting down on his lip, "Do you think…anyone from Kokuyo or Varia got chosen?"

Dino snorted softly, "Kid, I don't know if they even applied for this. Shoichi hasn't told me anything and I didn't see him making any plans to travel either."

Fran sighed and looked down to his lap, "At what time should I be ready?"

Dino reached a hand out and ruffled the younger male's hair, "We leave at six thirty, be ready before that."

Fran nodded and left his spot on the grass to mentally prepare himself.


	6. Chapter 6

At exactly six fifteen pm, Fran was still adjusting his tie in the mirror, completely unaware that he was to be downstairs in fifteen minutes.

"This won't do," Fran sighed as he pulled his tie off again and glared at it.

A knock on the door pushed Fran out of his inner rant on ties; he huffed and stared at himself at the mirror as he gave the person the other side permission to enter.

"Fran, sweetie, are you not ready yet?" Luche asked as she walked into the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

"I'd have been ready forty five minutes ago if I didn't have to wear a tie," Fran grumbled.

"You truly are your father's child," Luche chuckled as she walked towards Fran, placing a hand on his shoulder to turn him around.

"What do you mean?" Fran asked, handing the tie to Luche.

"Your mother," Luche said, smiling softly as she put the tie on the teen, "always had to help your father out with his ties. He was absolutely hopeless when it came to putting them on." Luche backed away a bit after she was done, giving Fran a once over before smiling proudly and speaking, "And just like him, you look great in suit."

Fran allowed his lips to quirk into a small smile as he looked at Luche, her hair tied into a bun and wearing a green evening gown that nearly covered her heel covered feet.

"You look beautiful, mama," Fran said lowly, his hand reaching out to take Luche's.

Luche smiled and gave Fran's hand a small tug, "Come, they're waiting for us."

Fran simply nodded and lead the elder woman out to the cars.

~0~0~0~0~0~

He had expected some classy looking ballroom with a chandelier and a few butlers. There was a classy looking ballroom and it was _huge_, there was more than one chandelier that made it look like the ceiling was covered in diamonds and there were more than a few butlers, there were probably about a hundred. He hadn't been expecting any of this at all. Especially not the large chocolate fountain in the middle of the freaking humongous ballroom.

"I'm going to get lost," Fran whispered to Dino who was whistling lowly as he looked over the ballroom.

"I hope you're not expecting me to hold your hand the whole night," Dino said once he was done whistling, "I plan on getting a few drinks in me and then dancing around with some of the pretty elderly ladies."

Fran rolled his eyes, "Shoichi will be disappointed to hear that you're into grandmas, Dino."

"Shoichi doesn't have to know, eh?" Dino said jokingly as he nudged Fran playfully.

"Shoichi doesn't have to know what?"

The two froze and then simultaneously turned to face a pissed off red head.

"Oh shit."


	7. Chapter 7

"Oh shit."

Dino quickly clamped his mouth shut seconds after the words left his mouth because Shoichi never liked it when he cursed in his presence. Yes, Shoichi. Shoichi who he was sure he had left tucked in bed just before he left to go pick up Fran and head to the airport. Shoichi who was standing before him, dressed in an elegant suit and who looked like he was glowing with the lights shining behind him. That Shoichi.

Shoichi furrowed his brows, clearly displeased with the foul language coming from his boyfriend. But he quickly brushed it off and instead repeated his question, "What does Shoichi not have to know?"

"N-nothing! Nothing at all," Dino answered quickly, trying to sound like he wasn't completely confused by everything that was currently going on.

Fran, however, was quick to voice his curiosity, "What are you doing here?"

Shoichi, who had been busy glaring down the stuttering blond, turned his attention to Fran and offered the boy a warm smile, "Oh, hello, Fran. I guess I should tell you why we're here but I assumed you already knew so-"

The red head cut off when Fran's eyes went wide for only a split second before he urgently asked. "We're here? You mean...the others are here too? All of them?"

"Yes, we're here for the race. Belphegor was chosen to represent our alliance. Exciting right?" Shoichi answered with much enthusiasm as he was excited that he was able to witness and participate in one of the greatest races in history.

Fran, however, had other thoughts in mind as he rushed off without another word, leaving behind a baffled Shoichi and Dino. His eyes darted around the ballroom in search of the familiar tuft of blond hair. He wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings, though, so he was more than surprised when he ran into a firm chest, he felt an arm come around his waist to keep him from falling. A glance up to the stranger had his heart stutter in his chest as he saw blond hair but he realized it wasn't the person he was looking for.

"Why are you running like you're being chased?" Spanner asked, a lollipop pushed against one of his cheeks as he talked.

"Spanner," Fran said almost breathlessly, feeling relieved to see it was his friend he had run into and not some stranger. "I have to go," he said right after and wiggled his way out of his friends arms but just before he could run off again, Spanner grabbed him by the wrist and to keep him in place.

"Check the garden," Spanner said, almost as if he knew who Fran was looking for. Which, he probably did, Spanner knew his best friend well like that.

Fran nodded and as soon as Spanner released his hold on his wrist, he made his way to the garden as fast as he could.


End file.
